Well, there’s this:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad freed 15 British sailors and marines on Wednesday, offering Britain a “gift” in a surprise announcement that ended a 13-day crisis which rattled world financial markets.

And this:

At last week’s Arab League summit in Riyadh, King Abdullah sought and gained the renewed support of Arab leaders for an initiative he first proposed in 2002 to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The core of the proposal is full recognition of Israel by the Arabs in exchange for Israel’s return of Palestinian lands seized in the 1967 war.

Settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian problem would do much to create an environment for stability in the Arab world. Many believe it would also greatly diminish the reason for Arab extremists to continue their campaign of hatred and terror against the United States, which is seen as Israel’s champion.

And this:

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held talks with Syria’s president Wednesday despite White House objections, saying she pressed Bashar al-Assad over Syrian support for militant groups and passed him a peace message from Israel’s prime minister… Al-Assad gave assurances that “he’s ready to engage in negotiations for peace with Israel,” Pelosi said.

The meeting was an attempt to push the Bush administration to open a direct dialogue with Syria, a step that the White House has rejected…. On Tuesday, President Bush denounced Pelosi’s visit to Syria, saying it sends mixed signals to al-Assad’s government. “Sending delegations doesn’t work. It’s simply been counterproductive,” Bush said.

What’s all this!? It brings up a couple of important questions:

Can the entire planet do an end-run around the Bush administration and Al Qaeda and figure out a way to repair the world? And if we can, how will the Bush administration take credit for it?

And do they deserve credit for it?

Anyone who’s ever had a completely incompetent high school teacher or a totally boneheaded and lazy coach for their sports team understands this - eventually, you and your friends realized that in the end you’d be judged by an objective standard - the other team, the standardized test…

… and the Shelbyville Ocelots weren’t going to care if your coach was a total fuck-up, were they? They weren’t going to take it easy on you. And the Admissions office at Stateburgh Tech wasn’t going to say, “Well, Mr. Turnbull is a bonehead who spent the entire year uselessly trying to score with that French teacher down the hall… so let’s give this kid a break,” were they?

Nope. Eventually the more talented kids, or at least the more perceptive ones, had to step up and figure out ways to get it done without Coach Hanzenpants. So in some ways, you gotta give the boob credit for motivating you…

And that’s what we have to try to do now. We’ve looked at Coach Bush’s chalkboard and noticed that his two-minute offense has our entire team being swept up and shielded by a giant X labeled “Jesus” right as the buzzer sounds. And before halftime he walked across the field and formally “double-dog dared” Coach Bin Laden to blow up the field and everyone on it. Which explains the chalkboard but doesn’t make us any more comfortable…

It’s not necessarily going to work, naturally. Ahmadinejad is still as crazy as a broccoli sundae, and I seem to remember hearing something about a Mideast “peace process” once or twice in the past. But it’s got more of a shot than the current Invade Or Ignore method of conflict resolution. And if things manage to get worked out to some degree, in an odd kind of way, Coach Bush will be responsible. The same way that the credit for some of those newly-renovated New Orleans hotels belongs to a brilliant urban planner named Katrina.